BEFORE THEY BRING THE BACKHOE
201 Stories From the Lighter Side of Serving the Lord
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WORKING WITH ROBERT G. LEE For a young person fresh in the ministry, there is nothing more exciting than meeting a famous preacher. For some reason, my life was filled with excitement, for I met several of the “champions” of my day, men like Vance Havner, Torrey Johnson, and Billy Graham. But without a doubt, my most memorable experience came working with Robert G. Lee. Dr. Lee was a country preacher who hid well the fact that he graduated from Furman University and earned a Ph.D. from the Chicago Law School. Lee is best known for his famous sermon, “Pay Day Someday,” which he preached over 1,200 times. R. G. Lee had a smileless face with a stern look. Directly out of high school, I attended Practical Bible Training School (PBTS), now Davis College. My father had graduated from PBTS in 1939, so it was natural for me to follow in his steps to begin my formal ministry training. Each October, the college sponsored a homecoming event called “Alumni Retreat,” and a famous preacher was always invited to be the Bible hour speaker for the event. In October 1962, Dr. R. G. Lee was that speaker. I remember it well because the head of the music department asked me to lead the singing for one service during the Retreat that year. I was a lowly freshman at the time and surprised at the honor. Dr. R. G. Lee I wanted to do a good job so I researched the history of each song I was to lead. I knew the composer, their background, and the circumstances under which they wrote their hymn. Finally, it came to my night as song leader. As I got up to lead the singing, I would relay some of that information before we sang, just to add more meaning to the song. I guess my waxing eloquent went a little longer than it should have because after the third song I took my chair on the platform while announcements were given from the pulpit. It happened that my chair was adjacent to Dr. Lee’s chair. After I sat down, the great preacher leaned over, put his hand firmly on my knee, and whispered, “Son, they came here to hear me, not you.” Message received. I never again gave the story of a hymn.
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About the Book
If you have done any traveling, you know the crazy situations you can find yourself in. The author has traveled to 113 countries on all seven continents. Feeling your way through different customs and cultures, you often end up laughing at your embarrassing and comical situations. Woodrow Kroll gained a reputation on radio as a uniquely understandable teacher of God’s Word. Much of his success was due to the humor woven throughout his teaching. BEFORE THEY BRING THE BACKHOE reflects on his sixty years of Christian ministry and the precarious and hilarious situations he found himself in. For example, once his brother and he had preached at a church in New Hampshire, but a snowstorm stranded them and they had to sleep on a hide-a-bed in the pastor’s living room with a cat. Unfortunately, through the night, his brother and he rolled together and suffocated the cat, until Woodrow revived it. He recalls a heated bartering session with an Arab shopkeeper in Jerusalem who, when the shouting and haggling were over, the shopkeeper kissed Woodrow on both cheeks and said, “I like you.” You have to read “You Touch That You’re A Dead Man.” Funny stuff. And, in the tiny town where he grew up, their only bridge was stolen. These 201 stories range from mildly humorous to knee-smacking hilarious. They are the kind of stories you will want to phone a friend and read to them.
About the Author
Dr. Kroll is an experienced author with more than one hundred titles to his name. He had a daily listening audience of 10,000,000 worldwide as President and Senior Bible Teacher for the international radio program Back to the Bible.